author, singer, scientist

Rants

When they tell you not to stick your finger into spinny metal blades, they REALLY mean it.

Yup. I’m speaking from very recent experience.

You know those stick blenders/stab mixers/hand-held blender things? It’s almost ironic that I don’t know what it’s properly called. Perhaps I should just go with piranhas…

Anyway, I really wanted guacamole, but the avocados really did not want to mush. Hence why I, the genius that I am, decided to blend them up and then stick my finger in the blades to unstick them whilst my other finger was over the button.

All things considered, I got off very lightly with some deep cuts. Plus, I got to experience the operating room whilst awake, because we all agreed that general anesthesia would be overkill for one little pointer finger.

And yes, I did try to watch, but their hands were always in the way… Instead, I had a nice chat with one of the assistants about what Star Wars film is the best (Rogue One).

To summarize, it was an exciting experience that would have been nicer with less waiting and less pain.

So don’t be stupid like me guys–keep your fingers away from… Piranhas or anything else sharp and spinning. Because, if nothing else, you won’t be able to write properly for a while and that sucks.

What is a writer? When can you call yourself one? And how do you get the world to?

We live in a world of titles, where the difference of a few words can offend or flatter–fire you or get you a job–make enemies or friends. Finding out who you are is a big part of accepting yourself, and telling others where your strengths lie or what your job is. But often, there’s a line between professional and unprofessional. If you took a summer course in first aid, you cannot call yourself a trauma surgeon–it wouldn’t make sense. But turn to creativity titles like youtuber or photographer, and the lines are very blurred. In many cases, I don’t think they even exist.

I call myself a writer. An author, even. Am I being presumptuous? Do I really “understand” what I’m talking about? Why am I not a bestseller? If I’m a writer, shouldn’t I at least learn how to write regularly scheduled blog posts?

I thought it would be fun to share some of the science I’ve been doing, especially because it involves words. When people think of biology, they tend to think of the experiments, not the hours spent trying to condense those projects into a legible and concise piece of art.

It may not be literary art, but writing good papers is still an art–you’re still telling a story. For this post, I’m going to attempt to break down a little bit of that story and also to talk about two of the fun behavioural studies I’ve been doing!

From the exact moment this is posted, it will be two days and fourteen hours until NaNoWriMo. Or exactly 3,720 minutes.

It’s coming.

And I’m so excited!!!

For those of you who pay attention: yes, today is a Monday and I usually post on Thursdays. But not this month, folks. For November I will be posting every Monday with NaNo themed content–prompts, pep-talks, and commiseration galore–as well as my usual Thursday posts. For me, NaNoWriMo has always been about trying something new–this bi-weekly posting is new for me, we’ll see how it goes!

What will your new be? A lot of people’s reasons for not doing NaNo is based on incorrect facts. I’m not here telling you that you have to do it–I’m just going to tell you how you’re missing out, and why your reasons for not doing it are wrong. Because I’m nice like that. Continue reading →

Films do. Yes, you can buy that 18 and watch it at home in the secrecy of your room or let your kids watch it. But there is still a huge red number on the cover. Books occasionally have suggested reading ages, but for all intents and purposes, they have no age restrictions. Their content also has very little moderation.

A blind eye is turned on our “Teen novels”, classics, and especially self-published novels which often deal with disturbing, delicate topics like rape, violence against women and children, and minors having sex.

I like the implications of this quote: we use labels too simple to define us.

Social media seems to be fifty percent quotes these days.

Take Facebook for example–most of the posts I see in my feed are in the form of sentences written in curly letters across a picture. Most of these quotes are authorless with thousands of shares. I know some people who see these quotes and sigh, saying things like, “She has a strong, powerful voice of her own–why is she using these recycled clichés?” And I also know people who are passionate about quotes. They copy them down from books and conversations, TED talks and interviews, and love to share them with others.

What’s with all this quote sharing? Why are we doing it–are we sacrificing our voices to join the crowd or are we sharing the fact that we’re all humans with human emotions?

After thinking about this question, I’m not sure there’s an answer. But I did find some interesting points to ponder on. Continue reading →

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Life Update:

Sonora's short story "Fire and Starlight Girl" was just published in the YA anthology Lust--the final instalment of an exploratory journey of the seven deadly sins!